


Wings of the Hegemon 'Neath the Azure Moon

by UnapologeticallyMeatwad



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Background Character Death, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Blue Lions Route, Gen, Gender Body Horror, Hegemon Edelgard von Hresvelg, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Trans Edelgard von Hresvelg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:55:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27391573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnapologeticallyMeatwad/pseuds/UnapologeticallyMeatwad
Summary: When King Dimitri locks eyes with Edelgard in her Hegemon form, he realizes the magnitude of her ideals and what she is willing to sacrifice for her people, and surrenders.[Edelgard finds her humanity.]
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg & Hubert von Vestra, Edelgard/Her Personal Happiness
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28





	Wings of the Hegemon 'Neath the Azure Moon

The dark magic burns every bit of Edelgard von Hresvelg that is left, her body smashing into the stone wall behind her. She leers through the miasma and tries to meet Hubert’s gaze, but he sobs so much that she doubts he can even see her anyways.

Edelgard screams and raises her arm into the black mist, the burn only intensifying as her bone creaks upward. She closes her eyes and yowls as her hand bursts open, her flesh melting off her, and her bones expanding rapidly. They darken like charcoal and become so unbearably heavy, all over she feels it pulling, her Twin Crests finally activating to do this final task for her friends.

She knows there is no turning back. The war is decided today, and they are about to lose unless she does something.

Despite previously being so far from Hubert, she is able to reach him now with her monster-like arm. Her fingers are like swords and the power sparks within her muscle. She could merely pinch Hubert to kill him, but of course she doesn’t. 

Though it takes restraint. 

A dark voice in her mind urges Edelgard to kill, to draw as much blood as possible. The louder the voice gets, the more the skin on her face pulls taut to her skull, the darker the whites of her eyes go. Even her irises burn when they shift from lilac to crimson red.

Edelgard bites her lip and very gently, touches Hubert’s two hands with only one of her fingers, guiding them to his waist. When he finally stops casting his spell, she reaches up and touches his shoulder, reaching around to scratch the back of his neck as he weeps for her.

“I was supposed to prevent this,” he trembles. “Your Majesty, I’m—”

“It’s alright, Hubert,” she whispers, immediately horrified by the sound of her own voice. It’s layered, as if someone is speaking in unison with her.

This is Emperor Edelgard von Hresvelg now. Floating in the air, she towers over Hubert. She towers over all, and wields enough power to decimate an army.

“I love you,” both of her voices shimmer. She’s not even sure if that’s true anymore, though she’d like to believe she can still love.

* * *

It was when Caspar and Linhardt fell at Fort Merceus. Edelgard did not cry, did not bat an eyelash. Her generals needed orders immediately, and she gave them. Later, Dorothea confronted Edelgard and screamed at her. “What would you have me do?!” Edelgard snapped. “They died! Just like thousands of others, if I am to feel grief for each soldier—”

“ _ Soldier _ ?!” Dorothea wails. “Edie, they’re our _ friends _ , our fucking _ family _ ! I thought this war was mounted to protect people, but they’re dying!”

Edelgard didn’t know what to say, so she said nothing and patiently waited for Dorothea to leave her. Maybe it’s true. Maybe the Emperor truly does have a heart of ice. She thought… it’s childish, but she used to think that’s all she had that prevented her from being a mere tool to Those Who Slither in the Dark.

How foolish she was to think such a thing. Edelgard has no heart, that must have died too back in the dungeons. 

Then came Enbarr. Everything else had fallen, and the Imperial Palace was the only thing left for Faerghus to seize.

Hubert concocted a brilliant plan, where he would lead a massive effort to be the palace’s shield. Mages adept in long ranged spells, like Meteor and Bolting, would be scattered all over, backed up by nearly endless reinforcements. But Edelgard couldn’t sleep easy on this plan. 

She couldn’t keep sitting on her throne and letting her friends die. Dorothea told her she had no heart, well, maybe this was the time to prove to herself that did. 

Edelgard knew the plan was a bust, it may pick off some of the Kingdom troops but it wouldn’t stop them.

So Edelgard laid a trap. Her people, her soldiers, are hidden away in the dungeons, out of sight from Those Who Slither in the Dark. She tricked Thales. She bowed to him in her human form, feigning humiliation. 

“ _ I have lost everything. Help me, dear Uncle. _ ”

* * *

Now, as the Hegemon, she is sealed away in her throne room. Those Who Slither in the Dark are scattered throughout, making up her resistance to the Kingdom. If Edelgard clenches one of her talons and focuses, she can sense everyone. She can hear each individual heart beat, she can even pry open their minds and dig into their thoughts.

The Kingdom soldiers are anxious and unbelievably grief stricken. Though Edelgard is responsible for much of their pain, she understands them. So much blood spilled so thoughtlessly. Specifically, at the hand of her people. Her soldiers, her generals. So many that overdid it, that mutilated and tortured. And Edelgard could do nothing to stop them from doing it. Because of Thales.

Well. She supposes she’s finally stronger than him.

Edelgard must fight. Not for herself, but her friends. Dorothea, Petra, and Hubert have lost everything, she cannot ever surrender now. She owes her life to them and well… her humanity had to suffice.

It’s so easy with this power to snuff out a life. Her magic is stronger than anything, it can kill in a single blow. Fast, lethal, and it comes from nowhere. She can summon miasma directly in front of a soldier who stands no chance of escaping, and promptly end them.

She hopes it’s painless.

Hours pass by and Edelgard hears less hearts beating. She kills so many, she loses count. She kills so many friends, even former lovers, that she forgets what it means to know love. To feel anything really.

But the Kingdom is still winning despite her best efforts. Those Who Slither in the Dark are getting massacred. 

It’s probably Edelgard’s fault that this isn’t working as intended. The dark mages are dying too quickly, leaving too many soldiers to fight Edelgard. 

Even as a God, she cannot accomplish her goals.

The doors explode, crumbling to dust, and Edelgard prepares herself for combat. She expects to see the King and sees his trademark ruffled cape but when the silhouette gains definition, she sees that it is Thales.

His jaw is shattered, an eye missing. He’s dying, and leaves behind a trail of black blood as he marches up to her. 

“You,” he growls, voice thin and weak. “You… betrayed us.”

Edelgard doesn’t remember how to talk, that happened an hour ago. It just… left her. So she just stares at Thales, waiting. She expects him to chastise her but when he looks up to her, it is with a smile.

“Well done, Edelgard. I’ve taught you so well.”

Then Thales dies, falls to the floor, never moves again, and Edelgard feels nothing. The war continues to rage on for hours, until King Dimitri and his ragtag army of what’s left finally make it to her gate. They are so small in numbers.

Dimitri marches out alone, Areadbhar in hand. This is the rightful King of Faerghus. Been to Hell and back, and from the intel they’ve gathered, more of a monster than any of the Demonic Beasts she’s let loose onto the battlefield. 

But Edelgard senses tremendous guilt weighing on his shoulder. She sees a man who is trying to redeem himself for who he was when he suffered. He has grown so much.

Dimitri looks up to the hideous monster Edelgard has become, She tilts her head to the side curiously, watching how his skin stretches as he tries to understand exactly what it is he faces.

Though her new body is so far removed from who she was, Edelgard still has white hair. She has the same jaw and eyes—at least, the same  _ shape _ of her eyes.

She hears Dimitri’s heartbeat quicken, she senses his thoughts.

_ That can’t be… _

_ Why would she do this to herself? _

Edelgard has vanquished his friends, his army, his  _ people _ . Now it’s just her and a small army. This was her only path to victory, she knows it. 

Yet Dimitri thinks,  _ What has she done to herself? Can she change back? Is this worth the sacrifice for her ideals? _

Finally, he holds his arm out and drops the lance to the ground, and backs away. Immediately, his army starts shouting at him for answers.

Dimitri turns and looks at them. “I fear I have made a grave mistake.”

“You can’t be serious,” a red headed boy sighs. Edelgard almost recognizes him, but it’s all so distant. She lost her memories of her childhood so quickly, and the same thing happened to her school days shortly after she left.

“No, Sylvain,” Dimitri grunts. “I can not raise my weapon to a woman so ready to sacrifice herself for her people. I have always known Edelgard’s ideals to be true, I only...” He stops himself, bowing his head deeper. “...I hated her, and now I stand here looking at her and I don’t understand why I hated her. I was wrong.”

He jerks a head back to Edelgard and smiles. Why is he smiling?

“This is the true Emperor of Fodlan—”

Edelgard loses focus on his words, it’s just blurs of sound. The voice in her head wills her to kill Dimitri now before he changes her mind, and it takes so much restraint to hold back. She feels so much confusion, especially when the soldiers and their King all lay down their arms and take a knee. Some do it begrudgingly. And they just lay there, waiting for her to do something.

She does nothing. For hours. And they wait for her.

* * *

Edelgard lays in a massive bed for weeks. She struggles to remember, to feel. In her stronger moments, she wonders how the Empire is adjusting, if there’s dissent over the lack of a physical ruler. But only seldom can her mind conjure this. Most of the time, it is blank.

Edelgard knows how grotesque she must appear to her friends, who just want their friend back. It destroys Edelgard inside that her appearance makes her feel nothing. She wasn’t always like this. She remembers growing up as a girl, and they would stick knives in her. They would dig metal into her flesh until she screamed, and a man would command his mages to leave the knives in place. Then he would experiment on her body until she couldn’t feel the pain anymore. For hours.

She was eight.

When her hair became white, and she cried in a dusty, shattered mirror, and the mages grew tired of her ‘girlish’ emotions and they cut her up again, turning her into a ‘boy.’  _ Man up _ , they’d laugh at her. Now she has sacrificed herself as the fruits of their labor; Edelgard was a tool to Thales, until the bitter end.

But despite how they ravaged her, Edelgard dared to transition and be girl again. Hubert taught her the dark magic she needed to master to do so. Several times, Thales found out and he would beat her senseless. He’d kick her until she had nothing left.

She supposes no one has the upper hand on her anymore, but at what cost?

Dorothea, Petra, and Hubert stay at her side the whole time, clutching onto just one of her fingers. She can hardly feel their touch, and some days she hardly recognizes them and it scares her to see these blurry people standing over her, talking. She expects that they’ll cut her up too, to make her even more powerful.

The voice in Edelgard’s head keeps begging her to kill her friends, and that is where she must put her focus. She restrains herself from killing, and everything else fades. For weeks, she lays there, making sure she does not kill or hurt anyone.

* * *

Hubert stays with Edelgard overnight sometimes and just talks. She hardly ever is capable of understanding any of it, but one night she suddenly hears his voice cut in among the loud throbbing. “—give up on you. Moons, years can pass and I’ll be here with you, Lady Edelgard. I don’t know what you are going through, or if you can even hear me…”

Her eyes move to stare at him. She hasn’t moved her eyes in so long.

He notices and locks eyes. “But I love you, El. Petra and Dorothea too, all of the Empire. We wish you could wake up… and I know you knew that was what was at stake.”

She should respond, but words don’t come.

He continues, “It was… selfish of me, to try to stop you. I hope I didn’t hurt you too much. I hope that you can forgive me.”

This makes Edelgard angry. Hubert can be such a fool.

She tries to speak, and nothing comes out. She creaks upwards, plates shifting as she does so, and tries again. Sound comes out, but it’s just the roar of a beast. She tries again and again, and screams. She must control her rage for she could level the castle like this. She tries again. 

_ Dammit! Speak! You must speak! _

Edelgard needs him to know she loves him and forgave him before he even struck her. Because she’d have done the same for him.

She focuses and suddenly gasps, and her voice is not layered this time. It’s just Edelgard’s high voice. 

The armor crumples around her, the bones shift, the flesh rejuvenates and it is so fast and sudden. Her ears prick up when everything starts to sound different. Softer. Her eyes burn when her vision starts to make sense again. Her hair falls around her shoulders and within seconds she goes from being the Hegemon to… a small girl, kneeling naked on her bed, surrounded by the bloody, scaley remnants of her past form.

Her body is marred by more scars than ever, her skin paler than even before. But she’s human. Edelgard squeezes her own thigh, and cries tears of happiness when it is soft and fleshy. She looks up to Hubert, and grabs him tight when he wraps her up in a tight embrace.

Still, she cannot speak. She tries to but can’t remember how to do it, how to talk, how to read, how to listen, nothing. But she knows Hubert understands her with just her eyes. She knows he’ll help rehabilitate her.

Her name is Edelgard von Hresvelg. She lived her life as a tool for war mongers and broke free. Now she kneels in the arms of another as a human being. A real human being. She is on this planet so she can stand up for the rights of the millions of people who also feel like tools. She will protect them.

_ This is important _ , she tells herself.  _ This is how I must feel forever. _

And thus, she makes it so.

**Author's Note:**

> You can [follow me on Twitter](https://twitter.com/IAmLordMeatwad) for tweets about my cats and fanfic, and [follow me on Insta](https://www.instagram.com/katrinajagelski/) for similar stuff. Occasionally I do live reads for my original fiction and fanfic.


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